Nilay Patel, announcing a special episode of The Vergecast with The One Device author Brian Merchant:

And, of course, we talk about the quotes from Tony Fadell and
Brett Bilbrey in the excerpt we just published, in which Fadell
tells a story about Phil Schiller arguing the iPhone should have a
hardware keyboard. Schiller has said the story isn’t true, and
Fadell has tried to walk it back as well.

“So I wasn’t in the room at Apple 10, 15 years ago when this would
have happened,” says Merchant, who has the exchange on tape. “But
this is a quote verbatim as Tony Fadell who was in the room told
it to me. He told me this quote in such detail and he gave such a
vivid account, and I had no reason to believe it was untrue.”

Merchant says the controversy has “blown him away.”

I figured Merchant had Fadell’s interview recorded. The quotes were too extensive not to have been recorded. It’s pretty clear what happened: Fadell told Merchant exactly what he’s quoted as saying, but now that he’s seen how it’s playing out, he wants to walk it back. It’s a little late for that.